


My brusied and bleeding knuckles

by Multifandom_damnation



Series: More than just children [4]
Category: Shazam! | Captain Marvel (Comics), Super Sons (Comics)
Genre: Anxiety Disorder, Best Friends, Cage Fights, Gen, How Do I Tag, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I'm Bad At Tagging, Kidnapping, Panic Attacks, Protectiveness, Separation Anxiety, Team Dynamics, Team as Family, Touch-Starved
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-07
Updated: 2019-08-07
Packaged: 2020-08-10 12:09:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20135233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Multifandom_damnation/pseuds/Multifandom_damnation
Summary: Colin tried to get closer to the bars, but he was worried about the rusted metal cutting into his face. “Dami, what’s going on? What kind of trap is this? Why am I the only one in a cage?”Damian looked down. “They took Superman and the rest of us to get to you. They want you to fight Bane.”





	My brusied and bleeding knuckles

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know why I wrote this but I've been missing these guys a lot and I've had this idea in my head for a while, and I guess I really needed to get it out, even though I have an essay due o Friday that's worth 60% of my final grade that I haven't started BUT THAT'S ALRIGHT.
> 
> If you have any questions, (I'm sure you have many, this is a little confusing), then let me know and I'll do my best to sort them out for you x I hope you enjoy it! I had a lot of fun writing it, it was just so clear in my head and I hope it managed to come out in words well enough (even though my weakness is writing fight scenes, if you've read any of my other works, you know this. I usually try and just... talk my way around them). Let me know what you think x

The last thing- or maybe the first thing depending on how you look at it- that Colin remembered was someone grabbing him from behind, Damian shouting for him, and being plunged into darkness.

Now, all he could feel was pain and the sound that surrounded him from all sides was almost deafening, a white wall of noise filled with indiscernible voices and sound that dug into Colin’s ears and stabbed into his brain. His mind felt heavy, his mouth was dry and fuzzy, and his eyes stung from where the strange flashing lights pierced through his closed eyelids.

Through the haze and the overwhelming sound and the weight that covered his body like a heavy blanket, he dimly heard someone specific and forced his eyes open. “Wilkes!” he heard, desperate, worried, and when he finally, finally managed to blink away the haze, he saw Damian huddled into a corner by armed guards, Jon at his side, sobbing as he held tightly to his father, who was unconscious on the ground with a large chunk of glowing green kryptonite on his chest and Billy held down beside him, gagged and his hands tied behind his back.

Slowly, Colin sat up, and the crowd went wild. He knew it was a crowd now because when he finally got his feet under him and looked around, he saw all the gruesome, screaming faces of the onlookers covered in warpaint and scars and scary tattoos, and that was also the first time Colin became aware of the bars.

The cage was huge, so big that the top was hidden in the blinding lights from above. It must have been an old, damaged cage because every bar was rusted and slightly dented, an every now and then a crackle of lightning would zap between the bars.

There was one thing Colin knew for sure- that he was afraid.

Somehow managing to keep his feet under him, Colin rushed towards Damian and gripped the bars. “Robin!” he squealed, hating the way his voice shook, but thankfully remembering at the last moment that they were still in costume and there were plenty of enemy onlookers. “What’s going on? Why am I in a cage? Why is _Superman_ here?”

Damian sent him an incredulous look. “You don’t remember?”

“Remember?” Colin hissed. “No, of _course_ I don’t remember! If I did, I wouldn’t be half as freaked out as I am right now, and I wouldn’t be worrying about being in a cage! The last thing I remember is getting grabbed by someone who put a towel to my face and then I was here!”

Frowning, Damian made to reach out through the bars to comfort Colin, but one of the guards slapped his hand away. Damian growled at him and showed him his teeth. “It’s going to be fine.” He reassured him eventually.

“What’s going to be fine? Why is _Superman_ on the ground?”

Gnawing at his bottom lip, Damian looked like he’d rather bit off his own tongue than tell Colin what was going on. “It was a trap,” he said evenly. “They told us they had Superman and Batman was… indisposed, so he sent us to check it out. We went to the place they sent us, like _idiots_, and then they grabbed us.”

“That still doesn’t explain why Superman is here.”

“Superman is here…” Damian began slowly, looking anywhere than at Colin’s face. “Because they knew Superboy would come after him, and the reason he is still here is that they’ve been importing kryptonite from Lex Luther.” He lowered his voice. “Jon is affected by the kryptonite, and Billy can’t transform with his mouth gagged, and we can’t leave without them. Or Superman.”

Colin tried to get closer to the bars, but he was worried about the rusted metal cutting into his face. “Dami, what’s going on? What kind of trap is this? Why am I the only one in a cage?”

Damian looked down. “They took Superman and the rest of us to get to you.”

The crowd suddenly erupted into shouts and cheers that somehow managed to become louder than they were before and Colin looked to Damian with the face of a madman just given his sentence. “Dami?” he whimpered as the crowd began chanting. “What do they want with me?”

Gulping, Damian glanced around the room with a critical eye before finally landing back on Colin’s face, worried and petrified, eyes wide and filled with a wild sort of horror. He tried to keep all the fear out of his voice. “They want you to fight Bane.”

As the chanting rose to a higher octave, Colin was finally able to decipher one repeated word in the chanting, and he felt his blood run cold. A million voices chorused, _“Bane! Bane! Bane! Bane!”_

The sound of grating metal shook the room and suddenly a heavy piece of fabric was dropped through the top to land on the ground, and the grating closed again. Colin recognised it as his trench coat and he was so disorientated that he hadn’t even realized that it was no longer on his person.

Rushing forward, he lifted his trench coat and slipped it over his shoulders, and glanced around the room, at the blinding lights and deafening voices, before he finally met Damian’s eyes. Jon was looking at him too, sobbing and holding onto his father, their faces veined green with the proximity to the kryptonite, and Billy was struggling with all his might to get free. “You can do it, Colin,” Damian said sternly as the guards finally got tired of his insolence and pulled him back away from the cage, his cape tangling up around his feet. “You have to.”

At the far side of the room, the cage door swung open at the same time that a panel lifted and a different kind of light bathed the room. Colin considered making a run for the open door, but he was slow and sickly, and every man in that room would grab him and toss him back into the room or worse.

A figure stepped heavily into the light and the crowd went wild, waving their arms into the air and chanting louder, so loud that Colin was sure his eardrums were going to burst. Too much sound, too many lights. His fingers and toes tingled with pure fear.

The thick, muscular figure with strange-looking tubes around his body raised his arms above his head as he started to enter the room, and Colin backed away instinctually. Colin knew without a doubt that the figure was Bane and that very soon, he would grind Colin’s bones into dust.

Slowly, Colin slipped his hands into the pockets of his trench coat and felt the cold, unyielding metal of his heavy knuckledusters and ran his fingers into the word emblazoned on the knuckles. Colin may be weak, but Abuse was strong, so strong that you could hardly believe they shared the same body. He slipped them over his fingers and kept his hands in his pockets.

When Bane entered the cage, the door behind him swung closed again, and he pointed his finger at Colin, cowering in the corner. “You,” he growled, voice deep and menacing and it sent chills down Colin’s spine. “_Te voy a matar, niño!_ They tell me that you think you can beat me. But you are _débiles_, for you have never fought _Bane_!”

“Well,” Colin laughed shakily, trying to back further up against the cage. “I don’t know who told you that, but I’ve never thought about fighting you in my life.”

“_Esas son puras excusas,_” Bane laughed as he waved to someone hidden high above and the lights shifted to a more concentrated beam. “Now you must pay your dues, and pay the price of your stupidity.”

Honestly, Colin had no idea what he was talking about. He had never met Bane, let alone thought about fighting him, but he’d heard stories of the man with whose abilities he shares. The only difference between them is that Colin had the venom forced into his veins and Bane still used it by choice. As the toxic green venom began to flood through the pipes connected into Bane’s skin, Colin sent one last look over at his friends, all watching him. Even Billy had stopped struggling against the guards. “Don’t leave me.” It was instinctual, and out of his mouth before he could control it. Bane laughed.

But Damian met his eyes and nodded, knowing damn well how Colin hated being alone. “Don’t worry,” Damian nodded slowly, trying to keep all fear out of his face. “We won’t.”

Jon spoke for the first time since they were taken, voice thick with tears but no less angry and determined and for a moment, it was the sweetest sound that Colin had ever heard, and suddenly, it gave him the strength he hadn’t known he possessed. “Kick his ass, Colin!”

And Colin, suddenly, with all the mite of a tiny soldier, realized that he could.

While Bane laughed at him, deep and ugly, Colin felt his bones snap and reshape and his muscles grow and stretch, and it hurt more than anything, but it was a familiar kind of hurt. Long ago had he stopped screaming with every pull and every fracture, long ago had he stopped crying at the pain and hugging himself close as his body reshaped himself.

Strangely, out of all the things for him to be afraid of, he wasn’t afraid of Abuse.

Bane swung a meaty fist at him and while Colin was never fast, he was small, and he darted between Bane’s parted legs and came up triumphantly on the other side and when Bane turned around to grab him, he was four his original size and caught Bane’s fist in mid-air. The crowd gasped as Colin pushed him back and while he had the element of surprise, punched Bane square in the jaw, the name on his knuckledusters leaving a faint indent in his face.

From the sidelines, Jon cheered through his sobs and Damian just watched on intently as he followed Colin’s movements around the arena- because it was more of an arena than a cage really- and Colin was reassured that his friends were watching.

Bane was circling him, looking both confused and intrigued at the same time, and crackled his knuckles. Colin was more afraid than he ever had been in his life, but Abuse had never tasted the bitter tang of fear, and he wasn’t about to start. Colin was hiding inside of Abuse, in metaphorical terms, and therefore, Colin couldn’t be touched. Abuse would protect him, like he always had, even at the cost of his own body.

Sure, Colin would pay the price later with the pain of changing back into his normal, scrawny body after being Abuse for so long, but he’d rather pay for it with the after-shocks than with a broken nose and missing teeth.

Once again, Bane tried to wrap his arms around his torso and Abuse darted out of the way, now much faster than regular Colin could ever be, and kicked Bane into the electrified cage. Growling, Bane, prowled around Abuse and they circled each other, waiting for one of them to make the first move.

Colin was patient, so Bane moved first. Abuse ducked out of the way and kicked Bane in the ribs, feeling satisfaction at the way the bones cracked under his foot, but Bane didn’t seem to react to the pain he must have been feeling. Bane snarled at him from under his mask and backed up. Colin felt proud of the small victory, but then Bane rushed forward and tackled him against the cage and held him up while painful lightening darted around his body and seared his flesh.

Chucking into his ear, Bane was close enough to Colin that Abuse was able to reach out and wrap his thick arms around Bane’s broad shoulders and wrap his fingers around the tubes sticking out of Bane’s skin. He was pulling before Bane had even comprehended what was happening and as he reared back, he gave Colin the momentum he needed to rip two handfuls of tubbing out of Bane’s spine.

He stumbled back, throwing his body around in anger as faintly glowing venom dribbled to the floor. There were still many tubes sinking into his body, but two now dangled loosely at his sides. Colin felt a flare of triumph.

Jon and Damian were cheering him on from the sidelines and Billy started struggling more than ever, so much that the guards were having trouble keeping him bound, and Colin felt power surge through his veins. He did the only thing he could think of to do with the excess excitement bubbling in his gut.

Abuse roared, and the crowd roared with him.

Dismayed, Bane looked around at the crowd that used to be on his side but turned the tides when they realized that he was losing. Slowly, he turned back to Colin, and while he wasn’t paying attention, Bane prowled up to him and punched him in the jaw so hard that Colin saw stars. He reared back, stumbling, and Bane punched him again, so hard he felt his chest start to crack faintly.

Colin fell to one knee and Bane tried to lift him, but Colin kicked out and Bane’s nose collapsed inwards under the force of his foot. He dropped Colin to the ground as he grasped at his face, blood pouring down his face. Colin stood to his feet, wincing with every movement, and hammered his fist against Bane while his hands were out of the way.

Deep down, Colin knew that this was what Abuse wanted, what he always wanted despite Colin’s own wishes. He craved violence, craved the pain of others, craved a beating, and now Colin was finally letting him loose, letting him have that wish.

Gritting his teeth, Bane flung his arm out and punched Abuse in the chin, his blunt nails digging into his flesh, and Colin’s head snapped back. Already, he could feel his body start to repair itself and all the injuries start to heal, but not fast enough. Bane was fast and angry and Colin just wanted to get the hell out of dodge.

Whipping out his leg, Bane kicked Colin’s feet out from under him and he fell to one knee, and Colin felt pain explode across his face, stars blurring his vision, and he lifted his fist just in time to stop Bane’s second punch. His fingers tingled with the force, but he now held Bane’s meaty fist in his hand, and he wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. His body ached, both from the beating and the transformation. He wasn’t used to taking such a pummelling in Abuse’s form- puny thugs usually didn’t put up such a fight.

“I’m going to kill you, _mijo_,” Bane growled, low and pitched to carry to only Colin’s ears. “And when your last breath leaves your lungs and the last drop of blood flows from your body and your soul departs to the land of the dead, I’m going to force your friends to watch, and then I’m going to kill them too. I’m going to kill them slowly, painfully, and I’m going to _enjoy_ it.”

Colin felt a wave of overwhelming anger boiling up within him and past the fear and the fury he knew without a doubt that he could not let that happen.

Roaring, he leapt up to his feet and threw Bane into the far wall of the cage and before Bane had even managed to gather his wits, Colin was on him, slamming his fists again and again into Bane’s torso and his face and every available space he could see, again and again until Bane’s taunts and screams fell quiet, and the crowd cheered him on. He could hear Jon and Damian shouting at him, but he couldn’t understand them, too overwhelmed by the all-consuming anger that he was buried in.

“Nobody hurt’s my friends,” Colin growled deep in his chest, so deep that he could feel it rumbling through him, and his vision went red. “_Nobody_,”

Bane didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer.

Abuse was so wrapped up by beating Bane until his bones collapsed under his fists that he didn’t notice the crowd scatter and disappear through hidden side doors that he hadn’t seen before, that Billy’s voice had suddenly joined Jon’s and Damian’s or that the cage door had swung open.

“Colin,” he heard dimly and he paused for just a moment when he felt a hand on his hip. “Colin, _stop_!”

Reluctantly, Colin pulled away from Bane, who slid down the side of the cage and slumped across the floor, unconscious and bloody. Glancing behind him, he saw Damian looking up at him with wide, worried eyes. Behind him, Billy was holding Jon while Batman- when had Batman gotten there? - lifted the heavy block of kryptonite off of a now conscious Superman’s chest. Damian got his attention again by tugging sharply at his trench coat. “Wilkes,” he said sternly. “You can go back now. We’re ok. You did well.”

It took a moment for Colin to comprehend what Damian was saying, but then Batman was standing at the entrance to the cage, looking right at Colin. It had been such a long night that Abuse was starting to recede deep into Colin’s psyche, and the deeply ingrained fear that Colin had felt all his life started to come to the forefront, and he remembered again how much he hated bats of any kind.

Slowly, Abuse began to revert into Colin, little scrawny Colin in the too-big trench coat, and Batman, job done, went back to tending to Superman, who was now sitting up and hugging Jon with one hand and keeping himself upright with the other.

Damian was there, and there was a pure sense of pride in his face when he looked at Colin. “You did well,” he patted him on the shoulder and Colin was thankful for the contact. “I’m very proud of you.”

He looked like he was about to say something else, but then Batman called him away with the stern call of, “Robin,” It wasn’t loud, but everyone knew that there was no room for argument. Sending Colin an apologetic look, Damian trotted away to stand sentry at his father’s side.

Colin stood in the middle of the cage, all alone, and hardly there at all at the same time. Abuse had already healed all his previous injuries from the battle, but his fingers ached in a way that Colin had never experienced before.

He felt so alone, and he really wanted to cry, he really wanted Rory, and he really, really wanted to have a nice long nap in a nice warm bed and go home and-

Billy was there, by his side, and he pulled Colin out of his downward spiral of terror like he always did. Blinking, Colin crawled his way out of the darkness and looked at Billy, who was looking at him like he was the only person on the planet, with tears in his eyes and a wobbly, yet genuine smile. “You did it,” he laughed shakily. “You really did it.”

Despite everything that was happening, Colin smiled. “I told you I would beat him.”

“You did, you really did,” he laughed. “Sorry I couldn’t help. I tried, but… you know. Even though I have the power of the gods and all that, I never expected my greatest weakness would be a damn gag.” He looked sheepish. “Sorry about that.”

“Don’t worry, there’s nothing you could have done,” Colin was swamped in his trench coat so he shook his arms out so he could place a hand on Billy’s shoulder. “Besides- I think I had it pretty well handled, don’t you?”

Chuckling, Billy pushed his hair out of his eyes. The area around his wrists were red raw from where he had been pulling at the rope that tied him. “Yeah, you kicked his ass.” He looked at Colin with a critical eye. “But it looked like you got quite a beating as well. You alright? Nothing's broken?”

Really, Colin couldn’t feel anything other than his burning hands and beating heart, so he just shook his head. “Nah, I’m all good. Now, at least. At the time I thought my brain was going to bleed out of my eyes. Abuse healed me up though. All I’m dealing with now is… you know. The transformation.”

“Right,” Billy nodded, and Colin knew that he understood. Really, he was the only one who did, the only one who ever could. They both dealt with the pain of their transformations in different ways. While Colin had to endure the pain of his body literally reforming by breaking itself apart and getting put back together in a different configuration, Billy had to deal with the magic that sung in his veins and rattled through his bones and made his body ache with its intensity of every electrifying transformation. Billy got it. Sometimes, after long nights of patrol, they would find some dark corner in some abandoned building to pass out in together, because the pain of transforming back from Abuse and Shazam into Colin and Billy was just too much for them to cope with.

Colin looked back over to where Batman and Damian were leaning over Bane’s unconscious form, slumped on the ground, talking quietly to each other. “Does Batman know why he wanted to fight me? He said something about paying my debt but I didn’t really understand what he was talking about. I also don’t speak Spanish.”

“Nothing yet,” Billy said. Then he smiled. “But I’m sure that Batman will get some info out of him when they get back to Arkham Asylum or Blackgate. I’m not sure where they’re putting him these days. I’m sure he’s looking forward to getting back into his nice, cosy cell and straightjacket.”

They laughed together for a moment before they fell silent. They watched as Batman knelt down and unexpectantly wrapped Damian in an embrace, on that Damian himself wasn’t expecting but happily returned. Outside the cage, Superman was still mostly on the floor, but one arm was wrapped around Jon, who was clinging to his chest for dear life.

If Colin were honest with himself, he hadn’t expected to win that fight. Sure, Abuse could wipe the floor with any low-life thug or gang member who thought they were top dog, or the Riddler or Two-Face or someone like that, but Bane? Bane, who's abilities stemmed from the same place Colin’s did, but who had mastered them, and had the venom pumped regularly into his body? Colin had expected to lose that fight within the first few minutes. But… he couldn’t let anyone hurt his friends. Not if he had anything to do with it.

He was brought out of his thoughts from a sharp gasp from his side. “Colin,” Billy hissed, reaching out. “Your hands.”

For the first time since the fight ended, Colin looked down at his hands, now lifted and held gently in Billy’s own. His knuckles were split, blood dribbling down his skin in little rivulets, and his flesh was bruised, dark purple and black, the knuckledusters coated in blood that wasn’t his own. “Oh,” Colin lied. “I couldn’t feel them.”

Tentatively, Billy raised a finger and poked at the puffiest of bruises. “Are they… broken?”

“No,” Colin shook his head. “Just bruised. And if they were, I think Abuse must have healed them. They don’t hurt that bad anymore.”

If Billy caught up on Colin’s lie, he didn’t show it, and instead dropped his hand to wrap his arm around Colin’s slight shoulders. “You saved us today, man,” he whispered earnestly into Colin’s ear. “_You_ were the hero today.”

A little surprised, Colin brought his arms up and wrapped them around Billy in turn, and was a little surprised at how much he needed the contact. It was grounding but in a good way. “Well,” he laughed because laughing was possible now that he and his friends were out of danger. “I guess being the hero for one day really isn’t all that bad.” Billy chuckled as he returned the hug.

Damian was hugging father. Jon was hugging _his_ father. And Colin… well. Colin got to hug Billy.

And honestly, he couldn’t find anything wrong with that.

**Author's Note:**

> ORPHAN BROS FOR THE WIN!!!!!
> 
> Also, thank you to @Adlatere for helping with the Spanish :  
¡Te voy a matar, niño!= "I'm going to kill you, boy!"  
Esas son puras excusas.= "Those are only excuses"  
débiles= weak  
mijo= son
> 
> And yes, Batman knows that Colin is afraid of bats, so be basically scared him back into Colin when he wasn't able to transform back out of Abuse.


End file.
